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Earth Kind Gardening combines the best of natural and traditional gardening practices to give optimum plant performance with minimal maintenance and maximum protection for the environment. Choosing the correct varieties and managing them well are the key factors in achieving a successful Earth Kind Garden. |
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In most areas of Texas, your county agent should have a list of recommended varieties for your garden. Recently, it has become more difficult to get many of the old standard Texas varieties. Seed companies are consolidating and wish to carry only varieties that sell over the whole country. In some cases, our local varieties are only available through small specialty seed catalogs, and are often very expensive. |
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However, people sometimes like to try new varieties before they have been tested enough to
be included in our list. Here are the things you should look for in a variety:
- Disease and insect resistance. The letters included after the name of a variety usually stand
for the disease to which the variety is resistant or tolerant. (For tomatoes, it may be N for
nematodes, V for verticillium, F for Fusarium, etc.) Get as many of those as you can!
- Days to maturity: Sometimes there is only a short window in the fall or spring during
which temperatures are appropriate for the crop. Therefore, it is often important to get a
variety which matures quickly. This is sometimes called an early variety.
- Plant habit: Is the tomato determinate or indeterminate (vining)? Is the bean variety a bush
or a pole type? Be sure to get the one you want.
- Product qualities: Is it a fresh market tomato, a canning type, or a pear type? How does a
vegetable variety store after harvest? Is the lettuce a head type or a leaf lettuce? Again, be
sure to choose the type you want.
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Short day onion varieties such as the Texas Supersweet are recommended for this area. |
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The fall crop of broccoli is usually the best, although early varieties like 'Galaxy' are worth
trying in the spring, too. |
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Short varieties of carrots like 'Toudo' usually do best in our soils. |
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Swiss chard, a close relative of beets, is a hardy green-the only one that often survives winter
and summer in our area. 'Rhubarb' chard can be a decorative, edible background plant in
your garden. |
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Few varieties of sweet corn produce well in Texas. 'Guadalupe Gold' corn is one of the
best. |
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Don't bother with head lettuces-the leafy types, such as Romaine, do better and are much
more practical for your garden. |
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Onions are easy to grow if we don't have extremely cold weather after we plant. Choosing
the correct varieties of large onions is critical; we can only grow short day onions. If you
have trouble with the big ones, try green onion types like these 'Beltsville bunching' onions. |
